Woman Saves Prime Black Friday Parking Space By Sitting In It

Last week one woman took staking out an early Black Friday claim even further by sitting down in a prime parking space right at the front sidewalk.

Apparently, she had gotten out of her car to look for a space on foot while her partner drove around looking for another one.

“”She said, ‘I drove three hours and I’m not leaving,'” she reportedly said.

Other cars attempted to park in the space but she refused to move until a mall security guard told her to get going.

This is a rather silly length to go to save a spot. You could get hit. Not to mention, why not just stand up with your arms crossed so cars can see you. With some of those SUVs a person squatting on the ground might as well be a pebble.

But be honest, have you ever fantasized about saving a parking space with your body?

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Whether saving spots is alright or not is dependent on the situation. If you are saving it for an unreasonable amount of time, or if there is a huge demand for it, it’s not really that nice to hold it up.
I have season tickets to an NFL team, and tailgate frequently and there are certain situations were it is okay to save the spot for a buddy, and others where you should just give it up. Again it depends on the length of time you are trying to save it (is your buddy coming 10 minutes before the game and its 3 hours prior) and the demand (are there 8 cars waiting for a spot, or can they just continue driving a little farther down the row?).

The cleared spot thing is just awful. I don’t miss that at all. Even in a condo/apartment complex (not the main street)…you clear up a spot, leave for work, and someone jumps right into it. No courtesy!

I live in an small apartment building presently. After we got about 7 inches of snow overnight last week, most of the snow was cleared from the empty spaces by the time I left for work at 6:45 AM. Later that night, it seems everyone had moved their car to a cleared space. The next morning, the spaces that were previously occupied were also cleared. It was magical! I want to high five the person who did this!

Never is a really strong word. I can think of 1/2 a dozen instances
Dead battery and saving the spot for the friend who is coming to jump me.
The handicap spaces are all taken up and my arthritic grandma is 2 minutes away
etc

Your grandma should get a handicap placard, and a dead battery doesn’t mean your car can’t keep moving until you find a spot next to you. If that’s a concern, take the spot furthest from the business, and I will bet no one parks next to you but your friend anyway.

For the grandmother, maybe it’s just that I’m too polite, but I try to give the elderly a break.

For the battery, if I were mildly inconvenienced to walk a bit further from a far spot in order to make the major inconvenience of a dead battery a little less bad for the people involved, I’ll go for that.

Like I said, maybe I’m just more polite than you. I’m not saying so to act righteous, though.

I look at it almost as a game theory thing:

Situation A: I take the spot regardless
Result: Probably ruin someone’s day for little personal gain.

Situation B: I give the person a break.
Result: I walk away a bit happier for helping someone out, they walk away a bit happier because their difficult situation is a bit less difficult, and I get a bit more exercise with my younger, able body (and I guess my charged, functional battery, too)

So between the two choices, we have A: both parties unhappy, or B: both parties happy.

That makes perfect sense if you look at this with tunnel vision. The car won’t move under it’s own power at all, so perruptor’s statement may not cover all bases but certainly isn’t “completely false”.

Let’s be realistic here. Do you really think perruptor thought a dead battery would literally lock the wheels and cement the car to the spot it was in, unable to be moved under any circumstances, or would you be willing to accept that perruptor may have meant “the car won’t turn on or be able to move itself” and just didn’t type it all out.

By the logic here, mountains are moveable. (Because…hey, earthquakes.) But of course most dead cars are parked, and they’re not easy to move.

Try rolling a car out of a parking space one day, just for shits and giggles. It ain’t easy — and it’s not always safe. (Cars roll — particularly if there are any hills — and people aren’t particularly good at steering them while pushing.) Now compare the effort involved in that to the extra effort incurred by the stranger that is forced to park 15 feet further from the store.

Is it morally ok to ask someone to lift a finger, so that you can save yourself a grueling (and possibly dangerous) task? Yes. There are limits to what you may legitimately ask of strangers — but the position that you may not ask *anything* of anyone is, frankly, bizarre. There are times where you are morally within your rights to slightly inconvenience someone.

For example, let’s say you’re tending to a dying man on the sidewalk. People have to walk around you — it’s inconvenient for them, but not very. Your view would say that you should drag the dude into the street because…hey, you can’t ask people to walk around! What kind of jerk are you, inconveniencing people like that! And of course that’s wrong. You’re morally ok inconveniencing others in certain situations — and this is one of them.

Not even if there are a bunch of spots in equal proximity and two people were trying to coordinate parkign next to each other? In my original comment I said there are stipulations, but I think it is more then reasonable to park a spot over to accomondate someone else who is coming with their freinds. I’m talking about tailgaiting, where you are going to be the spot for a couple hours and care you may be close to. In other situations I can see where there may be different etiquette, but still I tend to err on the side of being nice and as long as there are other spaces somewhere within walking distance, I’m not gonna let someone standing in a parking spot effect my mood.

I love how people go to great lengths to get a close-in parking spot. Meanwhile, in the time it takes for them to find/wait for an ideal spot, they could have parked their car further out and walked into the store already.
Which brings up a favorite past time of mine at the malls during Christmas shopping season: I never walk down the lane my car is parked on. I always walk in the adjacent one. When drivers see me with bags of merchandise, they reasonably surmise that I’m heading toward my car to leave. Suddenly, I duck between cars and they’re left in the wrong aisle.

Think why people spend 10 minutes lifting couches and tearing up the livingroom to find the remote. It’d be faster to get up and push the button. People like the convenience of getting out of the store asap when they’re done.

But they don’t get out faster. They just get to their car faster. If it is a busy day, then traffic will be heavy regardless of where you are in the lot. I’d rather be closer to the exit on a heavier traffic day than be closer to the store and further away from the exit.

I tear up my couch to get the remote because the console buttons on the side of my TV don’t work well. You press the “input” button 10-15 times to get it to work once. I know this is an exception to the rule but I feel the need to speak out :)

I just park my car in the first batch of open spots I come to…not the ones furthest out, but at least close to the last cart returns, but far enough that people won’t want to park beside me and bash my doors in. It’s literally like an extra 45 seconds of walking, yet people pull up to the front doors, or park in handicapped crossed out sections, or drive around for 10 min to find a space. Then they go home and call up and order some Hydroxycut or an Ab Blaster because when they got into Walmart, the size 56 waist pants they usually wear were too small.

That’s true, but there are exceptions. My wife is handicapped. She can’t walk very far without risking a dangerous fall (and since she’s on blood thinners, that can be very dangerous indeed). Quite often, the handicapped spaces are full, and she pretty much HAS to drive around for a long while, in hopes of a space near the store.

I have often seen all handicapped spaces filled (and sometimes half of the cars do not have handicapped plates or cards). Maybe it’s just where we live. And my wife’s been cleared to drive under certain circumstances–not at night, not far from home, not on the freeway. I’m loath to take away the little freedom she still has. When there is a handicapped space, she can safely get into her goal. But she’s learned not to take extra chances.

I must admit that watching this happen to her has turned me into a long-distance walker. I’m terrified of ending up in the same position. We’re not all that old, y’see.

I can relate. I’m 26 and just learning to drive.. I just had my car modified with hand controls so that I can start driving. I can walk, but I can’t walk very far, so if the handicapped spaces are full, I wouldn’t be able to get out and do what I need to do either. Your wife is not alone!

That’s right, someone with a handicapped parking permit who actually does need to park near the store, and can’t park in the back 40 as an alternative, should just stay home so as to not inconvenience people who illegally take the handicapped spots.

Oh, I totally love doing this. I meander down the rows of the Costco parking lot, getting someone following me RIGHT behind – only to turn around and head back or otherwise go elsewhere than my car (or put stuff away and leave the car).

Dude – just park at first spot you find, not the closest spot. You’ll be in the store LONG before you get one circling like a vulture to get a Sweet Parking Spot.

+1
I can load my kid and $200.00- $300.00 worth of groceries in my civic in less than 30 seconds and be on the road.
But put some entitled jerk in his car, parked in the aisle and waiting for me to pull out and It can take me an even 20 minutes just to get the kid strapped in. then my groceries have to be loaded just so.

Still waiting? OK, I will get going just as soon as I make this quick call, wouldn’t want to drive while on the phone would I?

I have seriously taken over 30 minutes to leave a parking spot, same lady waiting, and eventually honking at me. There were at least a dozen spots on the next row, some even closer to the door.

I love parking out in the back 40. Makes parking my F250 4×4 much easier too. However, when I get back out to it I swear that my truck suddenly becomes surrounded by other vehicles. MY TRUCK IS NOT LONELY YOU DO NOT NEED TO PARK NEAR IT!

Since I always park just a little further than I expect the parking lot to fill by the time I’m done, it’s just as rewarding when they follow you, since they end up following you to empty parking spots, and either take one, getting the walk they probably need, or they then have to go find another leaver to follow, since they can’t even just flip around the end of the aisle and wait for the loading to finish.

This is such a jerky thing to do. Most of the time when people are stalking you for a spot, it’s because there are NO spots available anyplace. We were in Walnut Creek a couple of weekends ago and every single parking space was filled. There were none to be had – not even at the farthest spot from the door. Your only hope was to catch someone leaving.

When you have a choice to be an asshole or not, why pick the asshole option?

I’m with you. It’s not my job to lead you to a parking spot. Having someone slowly follow me around a parking lot is just a touch creepy. More than once, I have opened the trunk, put my bags inside and headed back to the store — leaving behind a frustrated wannabe parker.

Whatever reason someone has for wanting my close parking spot doesn’t affect me in the least and if they want to follow me to my car and take my spot, then I don’t care. I think there are enough assholes out there and I don’t need to add to that.

Whereas I see someone driving around behind me (and backing up other traffic waiting for me to do my thing) as an asshole, so I guess the assholeishness just cancels out. I only drive like this to large shopping centers, so it’s not an absence of spaces in the back 40.

It beats the alternative, parking at the end of a long one-way aisle blocking access for other drivers to stake your claim on anyone leaving.

Even better are the drivers who go halfway down an aisle and a car starts backing out way behind them (and in front of you, lucky day!) and they slam into reverse to “claim” it. Blocking both you and the driver trying to leave. Yes, they expect me and the three cars bumper-to-bumper behind me to back up for them.

Why would anyone go to a mall that was full to capacity every weekend? I mean, I get “Oh sh*t! I forgot aunt edna’s Xmas gift and it’s the weekend before the holiday!” and you have to do it, but do you really need to choose to push against way too many people, overspend on things you can find for as much as half price online and be treated rudely by overworked clerks on a typical Sat in Oct?

And plus, New Jersey? God, all that hair gel, attitude and axe body spray would kill anyone who didn’t live in it constantly.

A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. If you wanted a parking spot on a busy shopping day, you should have gotten up early like everyone else who got there before you.

How is trying to find a parking space in a jam-packed lot a “lack of planning”? Should have gotten up early “like everyone else”? It must be nice to know what goes on in the lives and minds of so many other people.

Some of us work and only have maybe one or two days a year to get our holiday shopping done. And most of us, hard as we try, are unable to complete all of that shopping at the same place! We try to be efficient and “plan”, but there is always that one guy who gums up the works somewhere along the way – that guy who feels like it’s his duty to teach the rest of us a lesson and to show off how awesome he is because he only has one place to go and isn’t in a hurry. It’s attitudes like yours, not ours, that make the whole experience so unpleasant.

I agree. I never wait like this in shopping facility parking lots (hell, I won’t leave the house if I THINK it’s going to be packed), but this happens a lot at my university, and I always swore some idiot was doing it on purpose. At the college, you can even roll down your window and ask if the person’s getting in their car to leave (I’ve seen people get in their car and do nothing, which they have the right to do).

I don’t understand why one would purposely go out of their way to deter hopeful parkers. Scrooges!

I don’t mind if someone waits for me to pull out of my spot — as long as they give me enough room to BACK OUT and don’t trap me!

Many times the “circling sharks” want to get as close as possible, to “claim” the spot as theirs. I can’t even pull out so I’m just honking my horn and sitting there in reverse waiting for them to give me room to pull out. Then of course, they can’t back up because there is a line of angry drivers stuck behind them. It’s a chain reaction of grumpy parkers.

This happened to me this past Sunday. Giant red SUV wanted my spot… I don’t know if the driver sucked at depth perception or figured my tiny ass little Mini Cooper could squeeze out, but about a foot of the front of the car was blocking my way, no matter which way I turned to get out of the spot. Basically turned off my engine and sat there for 5 minutes singing along to the radio until the dumb bunny got the hint and backed up.

Of course, *I* get the dirty look, presumably for not getting out of my car and explaining that he was blocking me in.

Around the holidays, when every space in the whole lot is full, I will flag a driver down, pointing out where I’m parked, so they can actually leave room for me to back out. They know they’re getting a space (no matter how far from the door). They don’t have to keep circling, or almost pass my car, unable to back up.

I have had really impatient folks jerk aggressively towards my parked car urging me to leave my spot; I have also been known to back out a little, pull back in make a phone call, access the trunk a time or two to get the goat of some dickwad in a hurry.

I am never in a hurry, I always leave far in advance and I love to toy with people who behave aggressively with me; particularly during the holidays. So much so in fact that I always purchase the road hazard guarantee for my vehicle tires due to my penchant for pulling to the side of the road and kicking up debris on tailgaiters behind me… My work truck picks up a nail-a-month it seems.

Reminds me of an experience at Fry’s on black Friday. One year I went to Fry’s with a friend to buy some junk. When we left, these girls in a car pull up and say, “where is your car? I’ll drive you there!” As lovely as they were, I said no I’ll walk.

Ok, so it was her husband, not a friend…I still don’t see how she needed 2 spots.

Husband already parked. He was ready to go inside. She sat in a spot even though she didn’t have a car. What was the plan here? She was expecting him to go back to the car, drive all the way back to her spot and park? He was even on the sidewalk telling her to come in the store.

If you only read the Consumerist summary, you (jabberwockgee) are right. It says that both parties were looking for a single spot.

If you also read the linked article, dolemite is right. It says that the husband found a spot, but the wife wanted this “better” spot.

From the linked article:The woman’s husband apparently had other plans. He apparently found another spot, parked the car, and was motioning from the Macy’s sidewalk for his wife to join him, Solomon said.

Just FYI, most drive-thrus won’t take pedestrians because a) you won’t set off the little sensor to let them know a customer is there b) it’s a hazard because other people are stupid and may either bump you or run you over with their car and c) pedestrians can easily lean in and rob the cash window and dash to a waiting car.

I’ve Walked through a drive through, it was late, we had arrived at a KFC which due to the one way system it was easier to park just up the hill from (1.2 mile drive to parking lot or 40 yards and some steps) got to the doors as they were closed – said drive through’s open, no cars so we walked round. Got some funny looks – but when we told them were we’d park they were cool
(Aberdeen UK)

Honest – No I haven’t ever fantasized about saving a spot with my body. What she did was rude, but I bet she still doesn’t see it. “I have rights” or some such BS.

I usually go right for the further away spaces. Up close it gets congested and there is more traffic. I just drive right to far away place and park. At peak times it isn’t so easy no matter what you do, but closer is normally more hassle than it is worth, and I get a bit of exercise.

Reminds me of this exchange with a co-worker. She went to CineMegaMall on a Wednesday night and I went 24 hours later on Thursday night. Me: “Wow, after you said there was no parking Wednesday night, I was really worried but there were plenty of spaces.”

Her: “WHAT? That’s insane. I didn’t even get to see my movie because there was NO PARKING. The lot was jam-packed with cars circling. Lucky you!”

Me: “Oh yeah, I parked at the Sears end and just walked down through the mall.”

I’ve done this before, but not on Black Friday, just when the parking lots are so full that multiple cars are circling the lot looking for the one musical chair to open up. If we’re on another aisle over and can’t get to the spot before someone else will, I’ll get out and go reserve it. I’m only standing there for less than five minutes.

I don’t feel bad about this because I only do it when we’ve been circling the lot longer than most of the other cars. Parking lots can get crazy and you have to be assertive because other people will steal the spot you’re about to pull into.

I have thought about it, but I was usually too late. I will often find a spot in the row adjacent to me, and by the time I drive down the lane I am in and turn the corner to get to the next lane, someone has already snatched up the spot. Beyond that, no, I have not dreampt of saving a spot with my body. I have better things in life to worry about.

However, in one instance of Mr. Dent’s infinite number of quantum superpositions, the bulldozer had in fact rolled right over him and needed to be admitted for psychological counseling immediately thereafter.

I moved to Pittsburgh last year and I experienced the “parking chair” for the first time. Essentially, in the winter, people reserve their residential street parking spots with a chair when they leave. I thought this was a little ridiculous until I spent an hour and a half digging my car out of its parking spot after the snowstorm that crippled the city this past January. The thought of someone else parking there after all the work I put into clearing it so I could get in or out made me very happy there was a way to let everyone else know to stay away!

At least in Boston, it is not illegal (though unwise) to take a spot someone has shoveled out and occupied with a chair, etc. Not a good idea because you will likely find some scratches or a broken light when you return.
At one point, Boston tried to end the practice, and would pick up the items used to “hold” a space – people quickly figured out that this was a good way to get rid of bulky items that regular trash pickup wouldn’t take.

I always worry that I’ll grab an unmarked space, only to discover that the chair saving it was picked up by the trash folks (or put somewhere else by a previous interloper) and I’m the one who pays the price with a broken window or slashed tire.

I’ve done this when I was in college on a public street in Savannah, GA. My group and I had to do a shoot down town of a building and recreate the building perfectly in MAYA. A spot opened up aqnd we quicly moved our gear into it, and just in case, I dropped a few quarters in the meter as battles for parking used to get pretty fierce.

Sure enough, some late middle-aged lady in a new beetle pulls up and tells us we have to move, that these are for cars only. We weren’t having it, and while she was trying to pull into our spot and threatening to knock over thousands of dollars in video and camera gear, I called the cops.

When they arrive I successfully argued that unless the law specified that parking spaced were for motorized vehicles only, that we had paid for the space for a certain amount of time and were not using it in any illegal way. The cop sided with me and that lady drove off fuming.

I live in Savannah too and when I worked downtown and had stuff to take the recycling center one of us would stand in an open spot in front of the building while the person went to go get their truck. Never had anyone say anything though I did wave a few people on who stopped and looked confused.

I’m reasonably sure you also would have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon regardless of your claims. A car is considered a deadly weapon. Even if you hadn’t gone to jail, you would have spent a large amount of time and money in court and on a lawyer just to prove that you’re a smartass.

I’m reasonably certain that you’d still, no matter what, be citied for “failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle”. Most parking lots have posted speed limits of 5 or 10 mph. If you’re going to play the “I didn’t see her”, they’d probably counter with the “then you were going too fast” card.

Yup. Nothing pisses me off more than waiting in a line of cars becasue the drivers dont want to walk the extra 30 yards. I just drive to the first open area of a lot I can find and park there. I hate looking for parking. My local walmart is like this. The parking structure is 4 floors, the first is obscene, I dont even enter that floor becasue it will take you an extra 10-15 minutes to get in/out. Second floor is much better, except for the part right by the escalator. The back corner of the second level? Empty. Always. Yes, its 1 extra minute of walking, but that isnt going to kill anyone, and its much better than the 5 – 10 minutes people will sit in their cars waiting for a spot to open in the row near the entrace.

The problem with consistently-empty and enclosed parking garages is that a lot of people do not feel safe in them. I mean, how many movies and TV shows have featured a scene where someone gets jumped in a parking garage? Lots. That and there are tons of emailed warnings about creepy guys in vans parking next to lone-woman-drivers to drag them off.

We have a fear culture, and there’s safety in groups. I was admonished many times to always park near a light and near other cars, and never off in the boonies of the parking lot, and while some of those “friend-of-a-friend-fwd’s” are clearly fabricated, there are plenty of people who subscribe to the mentality of “if I read it somewhere, it’s fact.”

I don’t mind walking, and in open lots, I do tend to park in the furthest third of the lot from the front door, usually giving myself two or three spaces of clearance from the next-furthest car in the row where I park. But in enclosed garages? I try to park near other cars, just for the illusion of the security of numbers.

One Christmas a woman sent her kid to do this in a mall parking lot. I was pulling into a spot that, I had been waiting for, when a kid jumped in my way. I rolled my window down and told the kid to move. They wouldn’t saying that they were saving it for their mom. I didn’t see a car anywhere around me that looked like they were looking for their kid. About 5 minutes later a woman in an expensive car pulls up and starts shouting at me to get out of her spot. I asked her, “Or what?” She then threatened to ram my car. I told her I was calling the police because she was endangering her child with this practice and now she was going to ram my car into her kid. She drove off all mad.

Then I was standing in line in a store and she yelled, “B!tch” at me in front of her own kids. What’s wrong with people that they think this behavior is okay?

My mom made me do this once. I get to the parking spot and some lady in a chevy suburban came up and started yelling at me (I was 10 or 11). Then my mom came up and starts yelling at her for yelling at me. A lot of yelling later my mom got the spot.

It was one of the shittyest experiences of my childhood. I think it has a lot to do with why I hate shopping, malls, and chevy suburbans (in that sense maybe it was a blessing in disguise). However…

If you have kids please, please never make them save you a spot, lest it become one of the shittyest memorys of their childhood.

As already proven this stuff does have an effect on a kid, so please don’t do it, its just bad parenting and these days if someone see’s a kid trying to do this they will probably call the cops for endangering the kid.

I’ve done something similar on UF’s campus because spots are so hard to find. What we did though was pretend that one of the two of us saving it had lost a contact lens. The downside was the guy was so determined to get this spot that he helped us search for our nonexistent lens for over ten minutes and eventually, we felt he had earned it. Luckily there were more spots open in the garage at the time so our friends got a spot anyway.

I wanted a space once, but I was alone. So, I sucker punched a hobo and dragged him into the space. I then went and got my car, and parked in the space. Plus, since I told the hobo I would take him to the hospital afterwards, he waited, so I had car security as well.

Why would anyone fight to get into a mall like that? If they can’t provide enough parking spaces, they’re putting up their own fool barrier to you giving them your money, and therefore don’t deserve it. The physical mall can’t possibly be any better than shopping for the same stuff online–and that way there will be no parking fistfights and obnoxious kiosk girls chasing you down trying to thread your eyebrows and bleach your teeth.

my first reaction was how big is this lot that these two would get so far apart they would literally lose sight of each other but then finishing the article and your comment-sadly foresight is not the woman’s game play …wish they’d have a black friday sale on common sense! i know a few folks i would pay full retail!

When I was younger and broker, I used to “sell” my parking spot outside a nightclub downtown when leaving. My friend was the first shift bartender so I always got there early and got the best spots. When she got off, it would be at the peak hour and i would stand next to my car with the door open. Everytime someone stopped and asked if I was leaving I would say “I could leave right now if you have $xx” ($5 to $50 depending on if the driver was a douche or hotty)
Then someone called the cops on me saying it was illegal to do that. The cop wasn’t sure if it was legal or not but politely asked me to stop so he could do something better on a Friday night.

I love that she thinks that the best space. When you are shopping black friday the object is to get the hell out of dodge when you are done and the closer to the epicenter (the store) you are the LONGER it will take to get out. The best space is usually a short walk away with nothing but right turns between you and the main drag. People can be such cattle.

I know. I try to park so that it’s easy to leave. If there are cart corrals I try to park near to one so I can easily return my cart. I want to get in and get out of stores, especially this time of year. I dislike people and crowds.

Completely agree. We get parking passes with our season tickets for a local university. I use them when we play on campus, but when we play the once a year game at the NFL stadium I don’t use them. We park further away so we can get out faster.

When I was in high school my dad and I were parking at the Detroit airport and this kid – probably about 9 – was saving a spot for his dad by standing in it. He waved his arms and shook is head as my dad slowly eased into the spot, the kid waving his arms and shaking his head the whole time as he backed up and leaned on the hood. My dad pointed out that car vs. kid isn’t much of a contest, even at slow speeds.

(Of course, I was worried the kid’s dad would come after us with a gun or slash the tires, but we made it out of there OK)

I completely feel for this woman. While I know to avoid black friday shopping at mall’s and prefer to just walk to the stores that are nearby, I have had my run ins with parking hell. Last year at Bridgeport Mall in Portland I drove around for an hour and never saw an open spot. After an hour I got fed up and drove home. This was also on December 28th, not even Christmas shopping. It was the after Christmas sales. It really made me loath human nature.

Working as a temp, I once got called out to a furniture store. When they say that I wasn’t very big, they set me to standing in the parking spaces in front of the store to make sure nobody parked in them (they were waiting for someone to come fix their sign).

You know, you have legs and feet, you’re healthy – You can walk to the front door can’t you? It always amazes me that the people who fight like hell for the close spaces are usually the lard-asses who can afford the short walk.

Wow, that is stupid. I am too impatient to resort to any of those means for parking – if it is so full or there is no parking, I will go somewhere else, or nowhere at all. I drive to the train station and ride MARTA in if I plan on going downtown and I know parking would be a pain. And why not take public transportation, or even halfway from a park and ride, to shop if you’re not planning on getting a large item or an enormous quantity. And if you end up with more than you expected, you can take a cab back. Way easier, and Perimeter Mall is MARTA accessible. Strange how the lard buckets hate MARTA.

This is why there is an obesity epidemic in this country. People are LAY-ZEE! I always park in the last spot at the mall (to protect my car from inconsiderate door-openers). There’s always a space there. It wouldn’t hurt most people to walk a few extra steps.

My wife and I use to do something similar when we lived in WeHo. Street parking was such a pain because of parking permits that it was the only way to save spots for friends. Just had to stand there with a mean look on your face.

If I was in a bad enough mood, this woman would be staring down my exhaust pipe while I idled in front of that space. Maybe give ‘er a rev every now and again. When her husband finally showed up, we’d just see who moved first.

Fantasized?? I’ve done it! One guy showed up with his girlfriend and started to pull into the spot. I said “I’m saving it for someone”. He said, “Get out of the way.” I repeated, “I’m saving it for someone”. He said, “Get the f— out of the way!”.

I pulled out my cellphone and said “If that car touches me I’m calling the police.” He kept inching forward until his girlfriend said, “Baby lets go, he’s an asshole”, and they left.

A minute later my friends showed up on foot. They parked somewhere else.

Well Ben – Yes I can see a good reason to do this. It takes giving up some personal info on me, I’d rather not say, but here it goes. You see, I’m disabled and these days you can’t get anyone to help you and not everyone has a handicapped sticker and on heavy shopping days, the handicapped spots may all be taken, so I always try and get close enough to the front door that MAYBE, just maybe I can talk someone into helping me get the item into my car. YOU will rarely find a retailer to help you these days, especially WALMART.
I quit going to them because of this. Off topic, but they moved all their pet products to the back of the store, Combine that with customer no – service? I switched to Winn Dixie; I pay 11 cents more per bag but get GREAT customer service and care with my packages.. worth a few more pennies or even dollars.